Batman: Arkham Origins – Assassin Five Revealed

A trailer released by the Arkham Origins team yesterday showed the game’s fifth assassin for the very first time, a little known pyromaniac named Firefly.

We did speculate this would be the case a few days ago, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t pleased with the decision. The character is rarely represented outside of comics and this will be his first appearance in the Arkhamverse, allowing the developers to explore the character without worrying about contradicting a previous portrayal.

In the trailer (which you can watch below) Firefly is portrayed as erratic and cowardly, setting fire to a major bridge in an attempt to kill Batman yet fleeing once the Dark Knight turns to face him. Worryingly the scene looks a lot like something one might find in the Spiderman 3 game or something of the same standard, as Bats uses his grapple to attach himself to the arsonist as the villain attempts to fly away.

Hopefully this won’t be a segue way to a chase/avoid-incoming-objects section, as we’ve come to expect a lot more from the Arkham series and it’d be a shame if the new developers have fallen back on such a boring cliché. However, as chases like this are the staple in many Spiderman games (excluding Spiderman 2, aka ‘the good one’), it’s likely Warner Bros. Montreal already know how uninteresting they are, so perhaps the trailer is just misleading and Origins hasn’t succumbed to the curse that inflicts most superhero games.

Aside from that the trailer shows snippets from numerous boss fights in the game, including battles with Copperhead, Deathstroke, Bane, and the Joker. The most interesting of these fights (and by that we mean the only one that doesn’t seem to be a simply one-on-one punch-up) is the one with Copperhead, as it shows Batman fighting many identical versions of the slithery assassin.

Whether this is because she poisons him – as seen in her reveal trailer where he hallucinates many versions of her – or because she’s got some sort of replicating superpower is currently unclear. It is worrying they’ve gone with a formula that has been used in so many games before though as, like the Bane fight in Arkham Asylum, it will be unlikely to provide any enjoyment to those playing it if they feel they’ve experienced the battle in 20 other games before.

That and some pretty naff dialogue shown in the trailer have led to our optimism about the game diminishing slightly, as it no longer seems as perfect as we were expecting. Perhaps we’re judging it too early, but it’s probably wise not to get your hopes too high about Origins, just in case it turns out to be more Batman and Robin than The Dark Knight.

What do you think of the new assassin, and who do you hope will be revealed next? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Oldfield is a journalist, reviewer, and amateur comic-book writer (meaning he's yet to be published). He's a man who'll criticise anything, even this biog, which he thinks is a bit crap.
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